Improvement in steelyards



, tlnttd 'States @tutti dtiiirr.

P. H. WALKEROF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND JOHN L. TROWBRIDGE, OF SAME PLACE.

Letters Patent No. 97,839, (lated December 14, 1869.

IMPROVENIENT IN STBELYARDS.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all to whom these presents shall come Be it known that I, P. H. WALKER, of Boston, in the county of Sulolk, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have made an invention of certain new and useful Improvements in Weighiug-Scales or Apparal tus', and do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof', due reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, and in which- Figure lis a side representation, and

Figure 2, an end elevation ot' al steelyard, so called, containing my invention,

n Figure 3 being a plan of the same.

rlhe invention to be herein described relates to ce:-

tain novel and useful improvements in weighingscales, whereby the wear upon the beam, and the defacing of its division marks, is verymuch lessened, and the adjusting of the weight upon thev beam, to balance it, effected much more easily and expeditiously than by any inode, to my knowledge,' heretofore adopted.

rlhe invention under discussion consist-s in the employmentof a sliding block o r cross-head, encircling the beam ofa weighing apparatus, and from which issuspended, in a suitable manner, the weight employed to balance such beam, the mode of suspension of the weight being such as to allow of the inversion of the scale-beam, when steelyards are used, without re` moving it from contact therewith, the change of position ofthe beam being frequently necessary, when the amount to be weighed by the scales varies to agreat extent.

In the drawings, before premised accompanying this specicat-ion, and which illustrate my inventiou- A denotes the beam,

B B, the finger-hooks, upon opposite sides of such beam, and from which it is suspended; and

C'G, the hook, from which is hung the article to be` weighed, such beam, suspensory, and hook, being constructed and arranged in the usual manner of steelyards, so called.

In carrying out my invention, I produce a tubular block, D, of metal, formed in a propel' manner to embrace and slide easily upon the beam A, this block being provided with suitable knife-edge bearings, a a, from which are suspended a pendent weight, b, this suspensory being, in the present inst-ance, a single gimbal,7 c, in manner as represented, the employment of this gimbal7 in this position enabling the weight to be passed about the end ofthe beam, when it becomes necessary to invert the latter to gain :1c-

Acess to one or the other of its scale of divisions.

The inner edge of the cross-head or block D is provided with an index-pointer, c', upon one or both sides of the beam, for convenience in adjusting the weight to the poising ofthe latter, and such block shouldl embrace a suliiciently extended portion of the area of such beam as to reduce, to a very great extent, the wear or destruction of the same.

So, with regard to the gimbal joint for eecting the union ofthe weight.and cross-head;v it will be evident that this maybe accomplished in a variety of ways, as, for instance, a small portion of the outer extremity of the beam A may be reduced lto suoli an extent as to allow the cross-head, when pushed thereon, to easily turn about it.

As before prefaced, the adoption of my present improvement lessens or retards wear upon the beam, and mutilation of its division-marks, attendant upon a weight applied directly to the beam, as heretofore.

' In addition to this economy of wear', resulting from the employment of my invention, it will be found in practice that-the adjusting of the weight upon the beam, in effecting .its equipose, may be accomplished with much greater ease, and in comparatively much less time than is now required to slip the weight from one to the other of the notches of the scale of divisions.

l am aware that thescalc for which a patent was granted Vi'. A.. Starratt on the 9th ofJnly, 186i', has

Va sliding weight encircling the scalefbeain.

' more room on the beam than'ordinary scales will admit of.

My invention obviates all these defects by the mode of 'hanging the weight upon a tubular sliding crosshead, encircling. and fitting said beam in such manner' that, ist, the cross-'head alone is in contact with the beam, thus avoiding cumbering the beam with the weight itself second, the position ot' the weight may be readily cbangedwhen the beam is reversed, wilhout removing the weight from the cross-head, or the cross-head from the beam; and, third, the same crosshead may be used with weights ot' ordinary constructiou.

Claim.

Having thus describedA the nature, uses, and advanthe mannerand for operation as herein shown and described, so that when the beam is reversed the position of the weight may be correspondingly changed without removing the crossheadfroin the beam, or the weight from the cross-head.

. '1). H. WALKER. Witnesses:

FRED Cnmrs,

EDWARD GRIFFITH 

